Civil defence

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Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1941, 5

The remarkable flight to Scotland of Rudolf Hess still dominates the headlines today, though much more so in the Manchester Guardian (5) than in The Times, it must be said. More details are emerging. It now seems that Hess was trying to meet with one specific person, the Duke of Hamilton, whose seat is at Dungavel, just a few miles from where Hess landed by parachute.

The Duke is on active service, and was not at Dungavel on Saturday night. The Duke, who is the premier peer of Scotland, is 38, and succeeded to his title last year on the death of his father. He is best remembered for his boxing and flying achievements as Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale, and he has met Hess through his sporting interests.

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The Times, 14 May 1940, 4

If there was a surprising absence of speculation yesterday about the reasons behind Hess's flight to Britain, that omission has been handsomely rectified in today's newspapers. The Times even goes so far as to declare in its headlines that Hess, 'essentially an idealist', was 'disillusioned' (4).

Why? He is believed first to have become more and more disgusted by the trickery and shamelessness of Hitler's entourage. More than that he is believed to have become horrified by the bloodshed which he saw around him and by the prospect (held out in Hitler's last speech) of still further bloodshed "wherever and whenever I command the German soldiers to march." In all his speeches Hess has glorified the power of the German Army, but always (much more than any other German leader) he has insisted that the true aim should be a final peace.

A further report (from the German frontier, based on 'Current gossip in Germany'!) notes that during Hitler's speech in the Reichstag on 4 May, Hess 'appeared detached, expressionless, and almost bored, and contrasting this with his habitual and profoundly devotional attitude towards Hitler' (3).
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Observer, 11 May 1941, 5

The lead story in the Observer today is one of those not-yet-news stories: an 'important pronouncement' on 'a more active policy' from President Roosevelt is 'expected' (5) on Wednesday. The implication is that this will bring America closer to war one way or another, something 'more than moral encouragement and material aid' for Britain. But it's just speculation, apart from some aggressive speeches made by his secretaries of state and of the navy, though perhaps it is based on some insider information. Who knows? The suggestion is that April's jump in Allied and neutral shipping losses (488,000 tons total), the highest monthly total for the war so far, has 'dispelled any possible illusion about the Battle of the Atlantic'. However, the Admiralty points out that 187,000 tons of this total was lost in the recent Mediterranean operations, much of it Greek shipping sunk in Greek ports. So it's not actually clear that this does represent a new stage in the Battle of the Atlantic. (Still, sunk ships are sunk ships.)
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Manchester Guardian, 10 May 1941, 7

Ten aircraft failed to return from Bomber Command's operations over Germany on Thursday night. Those losses are quite small in relation to the number of British aircraft involved in the raids on Hamburg and Bremen, between three and four hundred, 'certainly the largest number ever used in one night' according to page 7 of the Manchester Guardian.

Moon and weather favoured the attack, and the submarine and shipbuilding yards of both ports were heavily damaged. Pilots' individual reports speak of areas a mass of flames, in which it was impossible to distinguish separate fires, and of great explosions caused by our most powerful bombs being dropped into the heart of the fires.

The report in The Times (4) is more vivid and evocative, which seems to have inspired even the subeditor ('cities seared by fire').

In other industrial quarters of both towns there were widespread fires as well, and many other marks of devastation. At Hamburg a whole wharf was blazing as a single stick of bombs was seen to split open a row of buildings. Here smoke was rising to 10,000ft., and in another part of the town smoke rolled in black eddies and suggested the destruction of great stores of oil.

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Glasgow Herald, 19 March 1941, 7

Lead item in today's Glasgow Herald is a report that 'a German U-boat is believed to have reached waters somewhere off the North Atlantic coast of America' (7). Slow news day? Not really; the real story is the way the war is creeping ever closer to America, and vice versa. The U-boat news was announced shortly after Churchill's speech in honour of the new US ambassador, John Winant. Churchill said that

Not only German U-boats but German battle cruisers have crossed to the American side of the Atlantic, and have already sunk some of our independently routed ships not sailing in convoy. They have sunk the ships as far west as the 42nd meridian longitude.

Even more, he played up the significance of Lease-and-Lend, describing it as 'an ocean-borne trumpet-call [which tells us] that we are no longer alone'. Churchill's conclusion:

You, Mr Ambassador, share our purposes. You will share our dangers. You will share our interests. You shall share our secrets. And the day will come when the British Empire and the United States will share together the solemn but splendid duties which are the crown of victory.

It sounds like US entry into the war is a mere formality. Of course, Churchill would very much like it to be.
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Glasgow Herald, 17 March 1941, 5

Today the Glasgow Herald returns to what has been the predominant theme of the last week, America's increasing commitment to the Allied cause, here represented by a 'world broadcast' made by Roosevelt on Saturday (5).

Fearlessly he castigated the Axis partners -- "these modern tyrants" with their "stuff and nonsense" about the master race. Their "new order," he said, was neither new nor order -- it was a system imposed by conquest and based on slavery.

Roosevelt says that the Nazis are not looking for 'mere modifications in colonial maps or in minor European boundaries'; they instead wish to 'eliminate all democracies'. But they've miscalculated, because 'democracy can still remain democracy and speak and reach conclusions and arm itself adequately for defence'. Presuming referring to Lease-and-Lend, he added that

This decision is the end of any attempt at appeasement in our land, the end of urging us to get along with dictators, the end of compromise with tyranny and the forces of oppression.

Certainly, these are strong words for a non-belligerent.
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Glasgow Herald, 15 March 1941, 5

The war news today is much closer to home for the Glasgow Herald than usual. A big air raid last night on 'a Central district of Scotland' (5) is vividly described, as though the reporter had witnessed it: readers would know for themselves just how far away it was.

One Nazi 'plane which appeared to be heading for home was spotted by searchlights, and immediately there was a road of gunfire as battery after battery opened up and poured shells into the apex of the searchlights.

The crackle of bursting shells followed a maze of flashes. When the gunfire stopped and the 'plane emerged from the barrage one of its engines could be heard misfiring. The 'plane seemed to be in difficulties and gradually losing height.

On the ground, civil defence workers 'toiled side by side with firemen after bombs scored a direct hit on a tenement building':

As rescue workers struggled to break down the massive barriers of broken stone and secure the safety of those feared trapped in the debris the fire-fighters poured a continuous stream of water to keep down the creeping flames.

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Glasgow Herald, 12 March 1940, 7

The Glasgow Herald, like many early-twentieth-century 'provincial' newspapers, made a serious effort to cover war and other international news, as well as reporting on national and local issues. (In fact, it almost seems more interested in what's happening overseas than it is in London or even Edinburgh.) Its highmindedness is also evident in its lack of interest in trivialities (no sports section today!) and in its rather staid appearance, with the outside pages taken up with classified ads, and the news and editorials at the centre of its twelve page. The Herald might be excused for its old-fashioned look: it was first published in 1783, making it two years older than The Times. (Though admittedly the Daily Mail, a jaunty newcomer, was like this too until the start of the war).

Above is the lead item in today's Herald, President Roosevelt's signing into law of the Lease-and-Lend Bill. This will allow (7)

the President to supply Britain and her Allies with almost unlimited supplies of guns, tanks, aeroplanes, ships, and all other war materials and goods.

In fact, he has already begun to do so, approving the transfer to Britain of 'the first allotment of Army and Navy material'. What this consists of was not revealed, but information from 'Well-informed circles in Washington' suggests that it may include 'Army and Navy 'planes, flying fortresses, and patrol bombers' as well as 'ships, tanks, and machine-guns'. And Roosevelt is asking Congress for another $7 billion to buy more weapons for Britain after that.
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Today I came across an article in an American publication, Science News Letter, dated 24 April 1943. The headline on page 269 reads 'Gas Attacks Expected'. The opening paragraph reads:

HITLER'S BOMBERS, if they make their expected raids on American cities, can be counted on to drop poison gases in bombs or sprays, Col. A. Gibson of the Chemical Warfare Service declared in Detroit.

This seems strange for two reasons. That German air raids on American cities were 'expected' is hard to credit, given that at this stage of the war in Europe, the tide had turned in the Allies' favour. German and Italian forces were just about to be squeezed out of North Africa; Von Paulus had surrendered his 6th Army at Stalingrad less than two months previously; the British and now the American air offensive against Germany was mounting in weight. Sure, there was clearly a long way to go and it would not have been wise to underestimate German power. (At this point in time, losses to Allied shipping from U-boat attacks were reaching critical levels, for example.) And it's true that several Amerikabomber candidates were then being developed for the Luftwaffe, though how much of this was known to the Allies (and how much to their publics) I'm not sure. But that's all still a long way from certain air raids against American cities.

And it's also strange for the claim that it was equally certain that such an attack would use poison gas against civilians. Why would Germany use gas against the United States in 1943 when it hadn't used it against Britain in 1940? Or anywhere, for that matter (extermination camps aside)? Well, maybe it would have, being more and more desperate; but how does this equate to certainty? Why were credible officials -- Gibson was the 'chief of the inspection section' at the Office of Civilian Defense, and, incidentally, a veteran of both the First World War and the Spanish-American War -- going around saying things like this?
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Times, 4 January 1941, 4

Though Bardia has not yet fallen, Australian infantry and British troops have broken through its perimeter and taken 5000 Italian soldiers prisoner in a dawn attack (The Times, 4).

The Australians, who hitherto had taken part only in small-scale raids, had the honour of leading the way through gaps caused first by our guns and then by our tanks.

The Allied front is now bulging into the town's defensive lines, and it seems only a matter of time until it falls (a period which 'depends entirely on the "guts" of the defenders', according to a 'military spokesman').
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